Most Popular Target Sights and Hold

[Muleskinner]

Just curious what type of open sights are popular for offhand shooting,bead or blade?, on the bullseye targets and what hold seems to be the most used....6 o'clock or center hold

[chapmans]

Muleskinner,
  I shoot a lot of compitition localy and at Friendship and most of the top shooters use a wide square blade front sight and matching rear sight, called a partridge style I think. I personally use a center hold but some use a six o clock hold, I talked to Harry Marsh one day and and he uses a modified 6 o clock hold, he holds at 6 o clock on the 10 ring.  They also use a blade that is the same width as the target they are shooting so they line up the black with the width of the sight then bring it down to 6 o clock. Hope this helps.
   Regards Steve C.

[Daryl]

Sizing the front blade to the targets makes sense, Steve.

 My best offhand shooting has been done with the 9 1/2 pound .69 with it's express sights with a centre hold.  That might be soley attributed to the weight and handling of that rifle and not the sights.  On the other hand, on trail walks, using the same style sights, I do credible offhand shooting with them as well - better, I think than when using tight V with a blade front.

[northmn]

The true six oclock hold is only good for one target size.  I beat a pistol shooter that normally could easily beat me.  He liked the bottom of the bull hold and on that day they had a novelty buffalo silhouette target.  He shot the prettiest group you every saw in the 7 ring with 2 no scores.  I kept mine in the usual pattern but within the scoring rings (pistols are really not my thing).  I was a gracious winner and tried not to make him feel too bad that he was beat, using his cutom made pistol, by a replica Colt army revolver.  My point is that for general target use a 6 O'clock is not the best.  Don Davis used to use the front sight inserts that outlined the bull in his modern peep sights.  I used to use a bead as I could not see the Partridge sights that well. Some could and did very well with them.

DP   

[Roger Fisher]

Square notch and square post for me and center hold since I'm square!!   That frt post can be narrow if your eyes are young since mine are not the post is getting wider and the notch also so I can see light both sides of said notch,. !
All the weird/weirder/weirdest targets we shoot around here from a white headed rat to Osama's old lady (with a wart on her nose) demands said center hold..

We fairly seldom shoot (at) round bull targets!!!!

[Daryl]

Centre-hold is the only one that will hit centre on all targets.  Trying to figure where to hold the 6 position is too much going on in the head and not enough concentration on hold and squeeze.

[chapmans]

  Daryl,
  That is exactly why I use a center hold, where is 6 o clock on a deer or a squirrel? It's a little different when shooting an agg. at Friendship , most are bullseye targets and the blacks get larger at longer distances. I do use a 6 o clock hold with the opens when shooting the bench gun.
   Steve C.

[Darkhorse]

I'll tell you where 6 o'clock is on a whitetail deer. It's a curl of skin and a few white hairs off the bottom of his brisket.
Learned that the hard way over the years.

[Daryl]

Darkhorse, if you'd sighted to hit centre, you'd not have to think of how low to hold. Cover the game fairly and down it goes.

Steve - I can see a 6o'clock hold on repectively larger bulled targets and using a wide flat-topped sight that is the saem width as the bull appears at various ranges.  Unfortunately, on trail walks or hunting such sighting will leave you with too many misses or poor hits.

[Dphariss]

The 6 oclock hold is nice but its not for shooting targets with scoring rings unless the aiming point is the right size. If you are allowed to turn the target around and put an aiming point on the back this can change things.
It will work in chunk matches where the shooter gets to place his aiming point.
If you hunt small game, like squirrels a rifle sighted to allow a 6 oclock hold on a squirrel head is very useful since the target is small and the front sight covers too much of it.
EVERYONE has their ideas on open sights.
Black front sights are poor on dark animals or black targets. Silver blades have problems on certain targets etc etc. There is no perfect sight that is best for every situation.

Dan

[Daryl]

One must try different styles of sights an sight settings to find what works for them.  Trouble with sighting for a 6 o'clock holds is impact height over unknown ranges. 

[Dphariss]

One must try different styles of sights an sight settings to find what works for them.  Trouble with sighting for a 6 o'clock holds is impact height over unknown ranges. 

I would never sight one so that 6 oclock stuck the center of the bull on any target over 3" in diameter.
If 1-1.5" high at 25 its pretty good to the normal point blank with more RB guns.

Dan

[Daryl]

I would never sight one so that 6 oclock stuck the center of the bull on any target over 3" in diameter.
If 1-1.5" high at 25 its pretty good to the normal point blank with more RB guns.
Dan

With 1 1/2" high at 25 - and with a small bore, .40 or .45, high velocity gun, high sights will elevate the max height of the ball, giving a false long range point blank.  How high is it at 50 or 75yards? 
Point Blank computer printout shows : BC .050 - Muz. Vel. 1,900fps - sights only 1.0" above centre of the bore:

25yds. +1.48"  50 yds. + 3.09"  75yds + 3.44"  100yds. + 2.08"  125 yards -1.34"  zero is where the ball first touches the line of sighting which is 117yards.

Higher Ballistic Coeficients will increase the height of ball impact at the anges specified, as will higher sights as will higher impacts at 25 yards.  If sighting on a 4" bull, 6 o'clock hold with a blade, that will put the ball actually 2" + over point of aim, so the intermediate heights will be even higher, as in 25 +2.0"  50 + 3.1"  75 +5"  100 + 2.1" 125 + 1.24"

So- you can see that sighting for high impacts at close range really fuzzes things at longer ranges and this effect is magnified with height changes of sights as well as with Ballistic C's.
This darta was copiled with a very low BC - and approximate speed of normal .40 cal rifle.

[erdillonjr]

I like to use a square blade front site and site it in for point of aim

[Candle Snuffer]

I like to use a square blade front site and site it in for point of aim

Same here, but I'm odd...  I can use a square notched rear sight fairly effectively on a percussion rifle,,, but with a flintlock I shoot better with a V notch.  Don't ask me why, but it works?  I do 99% of shooting offhand with fixed sights, but I do enjoy my peep sights on my X-stick rifle.